Jackpot!: Harrah's Winning Secrets for Customer Loyalty

by Robert L. Shook

The inside story of the gaming company that hit the jackpot playing by its own rules
Robert L. Shook, a New York Times bestselling author, delves into the business behind one of the world's foremost gaming and entertainment companies, Harrah's. Since Bill Harrah took over a small card game business in 1937, Harrah's has become a top casino, dominating Nevada and beyond. The first gaming company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Harrah's is a $4 billion-dollar business driven by smart marketing and smarter leadership. This book is the first to examine Harrah's and its leader, a man who dominated an industry and amassed a staggering fortune while refusing to deal with mobsters and corrupt politicians. Though Bill Harrah died in 1978 and the company has since been sold, Harrah's has retained its sense of history and remained an industry leader. Following the company's growth, Shook uncovers rich business lessons about marketing and customer loyalty, increasing market share in fiercely competitive industries, and maintaining a sense of integrity in a cutthroat business world. This is a compelling and intriguing story of a company that gambled and won, and it offers business readers an opportunity to benefit from the hard-won lessons of a paragon of the entertainment industry.
Robert L. Shook (Columbus, OH) is a seasoned business journalist and the ghostwriter behind several New York Times bestsellers. He is the founder and former CEO of Shook Associates and the American Executive Life Insurance Company. He is the author or coauthor of thirty-five books, including The IBM Way, Mary Kay on People Management, and Mary Kay's You Can Have It All.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published December 23, 2002

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a four star book with a two star title. I read it in 2014 so it was 11 years after being published in 2003, and I tried to take that into consideration as I was reading. The book starts out with the origins of Harrah's in California. Given the circumstances of CA not recognizing Harrah's "Circle Game" (a variant of bingo) as a skill based game he eventually moved his operations from CA to northern Nevada in the Reno area. It is important to remember that each year that goes by the image of Las Vegas being controlled by the mob fades a bit more and more. In 2003 the demonizing of the city was far worse than in modern day. Bill Harrah avoided much of this and built his legitimate modern casino business as we know it today in Nevada. It was only later that Harrah's expanded to 26 properties by the writing of this book, and a good chunk of the middle goes over how each piece of the puzzle landed in place.

This book is a great historical reference and dips into a some business moves the company made, but it certainly does not read like a novel. I would not recommend this to someone looking for a good "story" but for those who are interested in the history of Reno/Tahoe, Harrah's both the company and the man, as well as the years the company was merged with Holiday Inn, you should proceed. The second half of the book read much like an employee manual, and dragged much more than the fist half of the book. There there are many other better stories about casinos and Las Vegas one could find, for pure enjoyment. But if you are looking for insight directly the history and business operations of a casino company, then this is a thorough analysis.

[Justus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its an interesting picture into how a less flashy corporate casino operation makes it work. In a world of outsized personalities, the book gives an interesting view of how a casino keeps a loyal following. Written in 2003 its a bit dated, but the ideas are still interesting. The writing itself is not the greatest, but its good enough to get the point across and given the nature of the book its understandable that the author views his subject very favorably so yo have to take it for what its worth.....even so I think its worth a skim/read if you're interested in this business.

[Nathan Willard · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is terrible. Teach me to grab at a book in a rush on my way to the library check-out. The "history" is told in a completely uncritical way and shook keeps on throwing in business platitudes when he describes harrah's policies. The only interesting bit in the book is the slightly-more-detailed-than-a-wsj-article description of their strategies to attract the merely affluent to their broad range of casinos.

[Diane Lin Presser · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most interesting part was how Harrah's used Pavlovian principles to market to customers and that is what customers want. I enjoyed the objective breakdown of gambling and how the author removes gambling prejudices with facts. This is an insightful forward looking book of how to experiment and give your customers what they want through marketing.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

A nice bio of Bill Harrah and how he built a gambling empire. I focused on his early days and the later company strategy of implementing a loyalty program.